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Palm Springs Desert Sun

The publisher of The Press-Enterprise newspaper and other Southern California publications is suing Riverside County in an attempt to force the county to release a cache of public records.(Photo: Riverside County public records, Wikimedia commons)

The publisher of The Press-Enterprise newspaper and other Southern California publications is suing Riverside County in an attempt to force the county to release a cache of public records – including documents describing investigations into fraud, abuse or waste committed by public employees.

The Southern California News Group – which also includes The Orange County Register and The Daily News in Los Angeles – filed suit on October 9 in Riverside Superior Court.

The lawsuit was prompted by an August 2018 public records request by The Press-Enterprise. In the request, reporter Jeff Horseman asked the county to provide documents related to completed investigations stemming from calls to the county’s fraud hotline. The hotline, which the county established in 2009, is a channel for Riverside County employees to report incidents of ethics violations and abuses of power, such as theft and workplace harassment.

The county denied Horseman’s request, arguing the documents are exempt from disclosure under state public records law. The denial cites a provision of the California Public Records Act shielding “confidential and privileged” information from public disclosure requirements.

“The complaints and associated records comprise a system put into place to discourage fraud, waste and abuse in Riverside County, and to encourage reporting of any incidents that people believe might have occurred,” Smith wrote. “The records are confidential because employees and others would be less likely to bring the information forward, concerned about possible repercussions if filing a report could lead to them being publicly identified.”

“Even in cases in which names are not disclosed,” Smith continued, “the information itself could identify those filing the reports because few people might have access to the specific information contained in the complaint.”

The county did send The Press-Enterprise a report summarizing the number of incidents reported and closed resulting from calls to the fraud hotline in the 2016 and 2017 fiscal years. The summary breaks down whether incidents were reported over the phone or online, as well as whether the whistleblower chose to maintain their anonymity or not.

Carolan said state law expressly states that substantiated audit investigations into fraud and abuse by county employees are not confidential, excepting the names of whistleblower employees and the subjects of an investigation, whose names may be redacted from records before they are released.

“The legislature has already spoken to the issue of what measure of confidentiality will protect the reporting party, and that measure is aimed at preventing a chilling effect,” Carolan said. “That doesn’t mean you withhold the entire investigation report.”